Radiation doses to technologists working with 18F-FDG in a PET center with high patient capacity

The increasing numbers of PET studies for routine diagnosis creates a real hazard to radiation workers. The aim of this study is to estimate the annual whole-body and finger radiation dose to technologists working with 18F-FDG in a PET center with high patient potential. In our PET center, the number of PET imaging has increased almost to 5000 studies per year. Our standard dose for tumor imaging is 518 MBq of 18F-FDG. Five technologists performing all steps of 18F-FDG imaging (5 patients per technologist in a day) were officially involved round the week for handling and injecting 18F-FDG to patients. Whole-body and finger dose measurements with TLDs were performed for two different time periods: i) before shielding precautions during the first 6 months (without a shielding for sterile syringe and without a lead container for shielded syringe) and ii) after shielding precautions during the next 6 months (with a shielding for sterile syringe and with a lead container for shielded syringe). The average annual whole-body radiation dose for one technologist before shielding precautions was 7.82 mSv and after shielding precautions was 5.76 mSv. On the other hand, while the average annual finger radiation doses for one technologist before shielding precautions were 210.36 and 293.72 mSv for the left and right hand, after shielding precautions were they 158.16 and 217.58 mSv for the left and right hand, respectively. According to our results, if one technologist performs the whole-body PET imaging of 5 patients per day, the annual radiation dose to this technologist will not exceed the recommended limits by ICRP.